Some Reflections After the 2023 VA Relief Sale

Inside joke at a recent SOS committee
meeting: "We'll know God's kingdom has
come when the lines at the MCC giving table
are as long as those lined up for donuts."

1. We're truly grateful for the "Sharing Our Surplus" (SOS) monetary contributions made at the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale giving table this year. The total raised there was $36,492.86, a slight increase over 2022, when we had our first $10,000 donor. This year we had another (different) couple who gave the same amount. 

2. Yet we haven't been able to substantially increase the percentage of sale attendees who donate (around 1.5% of the estimated 4000 present this year). Fortunately, the 59 individuals who did made SOS designated gifts were very generous, as follows: 

Number of donors and donor amounts
1- $10,000
2- $2500
2- $2000
3- $1000
1- $600
5- $500
1- $400
1- $300
1- $250
4- $200
12- $100-150
26- $1-75

Others who made smaller contributions all helped add to the total, SOS giving amounting to around 10% of what the Relief Sale will send to MCC this year, all without any overhead costs.

An additional $400 of SOS giving was on the Relief Sale website, plus over $2000 was received in direct deposits through the Park View Federal Credit Union.

3.The donor who blessed us most this year was Wakuru, who looked to be around a second grader of likely middle eastern origin (and maybe once a refugee himself?) who came to the Everence sponsored gift table with a big smile and a crumpled $1 bill. We see him as one of our greatest givers!

4. The quart size giving jars we had at various business and other locations in the weeks prior to the sale raised only around $140, well below last year's numbers, and these same jars placed at different venues at the sale itself brought in just under $15, so we will need to evaluate whether to continue using those.

5. Some fear that the sale itself, for most people, becomes more a matter of getting than actually giving, whether attendees are gaining an excess of good food or gaining more additional possessions like quilts, crafts, furniture, etc. Having said that, most attendees willingly give significantly more for these items than they could purchase them otherwise, so that extra can certainly be counted as a generous gift to help people in need. But the people who create and donate these items are the major givers, as are those who donate untold amounts of time in making this celebratory event possible.

6. I did have one friend on Facebook comment on one of my posts promoting the relief sale, "Perhaps MCC could organize a day of fasting following the relief sale. The 'pig out for world hunger' message always sits strangely with me... people could fast and donate the day after the sale in a way that benefits their bodies and souls." My response was that I would love for that to happen! Perhaps we could encourage all of the members of our supporting churches to at least skip breakfast that Sunday morning and then have a rice and beans noon meal together at the church and take up a huge collection to add to the money sent to MCC. 

What do you think?

Are Churches Infecting Us With Jesus' Message Or Inoculating Us From It?

 

Sam Funkhouser, a native of Shenandoah County,
is a member of the Old German Baptist Brethren,
New Conference, and is the executive director of
the Brethren/Mennonite Heritage Center.

"Our US economy is fundamentally at odds with the gospel...  As average Americans we are a part of the most affluent society the world has ever known... We live like royalty, enjoy a level of prosperity that is unjust and unsustainable, and that is predicated on the poverty of others...  Nothing could be more clear in the teachings of Jesus and the prophets than a condemnation of this kind of wealth."

You could have heard a pin drop as Sam Funkhouser spoke those words at a recent monthly meeting of Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community's Elder Exchange. Few of us gathered at the Detwiler Auditorium were used to hearing these kinds of prophetic words from our pulpits.

Which raises the question of whether our churches have become all too complicit in immunizing us from Jesus's liberating good news of a more simple and celebratory way to live in the Babylon that is America.

Which has me raising the following questions:

• Are millionaires made to feel more at home in our congregations than people living in poverty?

• Are our stewardship sermons and Sunday School conversations more about offering charity than about creating equity and promoting justice?

• Are we we being assured of our right to continue increasing our wealth year by year or are we being urged to heed Jesus's call to decrease our wealth in favor of storing up treasure in heaven?

• Do we see the millions of children of God in the global south as deserving the same access to adequate food, shelter and medical care as we feel entitled to? 

• Is anyone raising serious questions about our churches and church-related institutions investing ever more of their budgets in state of the art facilities and programs that are creating an ever widening disparity between the world's privileged and the impoverished?

• And are we becoming increasingly comfortable with being increasingly comfortable and complacent?

Here's a link to the October 12 Elder Exchange event at VMRC https://vimeo.com/872662179?share=copy.

Guest Post: A Heartfelt Letter To The President

We should welcome all of the information possible as
we pray for, and seek to influence, people in positions
of power, urging them to help bring about a just peace
in a part of God's world torn by decades of violence. 

I post the following with the permission of retired seminary professor Dorothy Jean Weaver, who has led 21 educational and/or work group tours of the Holy Land and felt led to write this letter to her president:

October 10, 2023 

President Joseph R. Biden 

The White House, 

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., 

Washington, DC, 20500 

Dear Mr. President, 

I write to you as an American citizen, a regular voter, and a person who has traveled almost annually to Israel/Palestine over the past quarter century. Since January 1996, I have witnessed, up close and personal and over and over again, the profound challenges posed by the now 56-year-and-counting brutal military occupation of the Palestinian people by the Israeli Defense Forces. 

Now—after 56 years of Israeli military occupation, supported massively by the US government, and after 16 years of an inhumane siege of the entire civilian population of Gaza, trapped as they are in an open-air prison with virtually no means of “escape”—an almost unthinkably vicious and violent act has taken place. Palestinian fighters from Gaza have now turned the tables on the Israeli occupiers, taken events into their own hands, invaded Israel by multiple means, and brutally massacred hundreds of Israelis. 

 In response to this vicious attack, the full power of the Israeli military is now trained directly on Gaza and its two million Palestinian civilians, trapped there in circumstances widely recognized as unlivable, without means of escape, without bomb shelters or an “iron dome” to protect them from Israeli bombing, and, as per the notice of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, without food, water, or electricity. 

Mr. President, in no way and by no means do I support the vicious acts of Hamas in murdering citizens of Israel. As a follower of Jesus, I do not support violence of any kind by humans against other humans.

 

But it does not take a degree in international affairs to recognize that the present circumstances are the recipe for a large-scale human catastrophe and, what is even more culpable, massive human rights abuses enacted collectively against an entire population. But vis-à-vis this looming human and human rights catastrophe, you, Mr. President, have seen fit only to “add more fuel to the fire” and to send even more weapons and military capability to the State of Israel to attack the besieged people of Gaza. 

Mr. President, have you completely lost your moral compass? Are you truly willing to make the United States complicit in the massive human rights abuses even now being perpetrated on the civilian population of Gaza, let alone in the wider human catastrophe to come? 

 This is the time, not for making more war, but rather for taking the courageous steps needed to finally and completely dismantle the 56-year-and-counting military occupation of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel and to use the considerable power and influence of the United States to work at establishing a sturdy basis for justice and peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike. 

 Sincerely, 

 Dorothy Jean Weaver

******************************************

P.S. Here's some links to share your own message:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/get-involved/write-or-call/

https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

https://cmep.org/takeaction/action-alerts/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwm66pBhDQARIsALIR2zDQ7K-DnBEud7YCwqO4Jw0UfajC8eg_GR7xNRrcuE_Ru9OTyMej738aAiI_EALw_wcB 

"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and dignity."               Paul, I Timothy 2:1-2 (NRSV)

Prisoner Raises Over $1000 For World Relief

Popsicle sticks, pebbles and other other odds and ends in 
and around Building 2A went into this amazing contribution to
the Virginia Mennonite Relief's effort to raise funds for
Mennonite Central Committee.

The following post is by a local incarcerated friend whose artistic work was sold at the October 6-7 Relief Sale auction for a gratifying $1050.

Title: "Crucifixion Week"

B. Brubaker

Dillwyn Correctional Center

Hometown: Harrisonburg, VA

I must recognize my peers at DWCC, in Building 2A, who contributed in some manner to the timely and successful completion of my 2023 donation to the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale. One man in particular, Tim Burnopp, took my ideas and made them come to fruition as he painted the underside of the lid that becomes the backdrop when the box is opened during the spring when we honor the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I have more than 700 hours of artistic focus in this year's project along with the hours Tim Burnopp had in the paintings. My peers also helped pick up pebbles on the yard, made the linens in tomb, and gave me tidbits of yarn and other items that I used in the making of this creation. A big thank you to my peers at DWCC, dorm 2A, who contributed in some manner.

I attempted to make the outside of the closed box look like a medieval papal strongbox used to transport the church's treasury or significant decrees. I made the faux jade stone out of pink erasers and capped the stone with halved pencils that I must soak in boiling water for the glue to release that holds a pencil together. I dispose of the pencil lead and use the small pencil top erasers split in half on other projects. This year I accented or created the wood grain with a black wash paint and then added some gold metallic paint along these striations to give the trim pieces a gilded look. The narrative unfolding inside the box is certainly precious to all who believe in Jesus Christ who transformed God's first covenant made with Abraham and his descendants.

The perspective I created when the box is open is of the viewer standing inside the City of Jerusalem looking outward. A sojourner sent me a photo of Jerusalem's, Jaffa Gate, where the road to Emmaus exits Jerusalem. I did my best to match the city's wall design though my stones were quite different in shape and my space limited. On the inside of the city wall lying about the street or leaned up against the wall are painted palm branches that I imagine the children were still playing with days after Jesus road into the city on a donkey, His triumphant entry.

Exiting the city to the left is a road that leads past the representation of the Garden of Gethsemane and on up the hill to Golgotha. I imagine that most gardens in this arid landscape need a water source so I placed a spring coming out of the rocky point upon which Christ was crucified. The spring giving life to the vine in the garden that grows seemingly out of the stone. There are many metaphors tied to this spring, the paramount one being Christ being our source of "living water." In the garden I placed one plant, a climbing wild rose, as Christ is referred to as, "The Rose of Sharon." Christ refers to Himself as the vine in several passages in the New Testament and for this reason I chose to define the Garden of Gethsemane in this manner. Though seasonally it may not have been the time for the roses to blossom, my artist's mind likes to think that Christ's tears shed that night in the garden and His blood running down the cross touching the vine burst the vine into glorious bloom. 

Moving to the left past the Garden of Gethsemane, the path begins to climb the rocky point known as Golgotha. The path trodden up this hill is soiled and likely stained by the blood of many men who had died at the hands of the Romans who had conquered Jerusalem. At the top of the incline are two women depicted of the many who were likely there witnessing Christ's crucifixion. I chose to make Mary, the mother of Jesus kneeling, and Mary Magdalene standing consoling her. Behind these two women is the first mural that holds events taking place prior to Christ's crucifixion. In this first painting is a representation of Christ driving the money changers out of the temple. Next to that is a table that holds a cup of wine and a loaf of bread. Under the table is a water pitcher, basin, and towel. Together representing the last supper.

Centered on the promenade of the rocky point is Christ with the two thieves on each side of Him. The middle mural depicts the darkness as the day turned to night when God turned away from the sin Christ bore for us on the cross. At this moment the Temple veil tore as Christ became our forever intercessory, through Him we can enter into the Father's presence. During this darkness, Christ defeats Death and takes back the keys which are painted in the lower right of the middle mural.

Behind Christ and the two thieves are two Roman soldiers, one with the sword that pierced His side. Behind the thief on the right are two of the disciples, in my mind the two men who traveled back to Emmaus very discouraged and confused about the death of Jesus. The entire right-hand side of the mural and the right interior of the box is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The empty tomb, Christ's ascension, and my favorite event of Easter, the reference to the men walking home to Emmaus from Jerusalem.

None of the 80 men in my dorm, except for one, knew the story of Christ joining these two distraught men on their journey home to Emmaus. Working on this year's project became an opportunity for me to share with my peers here the motivations for sitting these 3 months focused on this project day and night. My most asked question was, "Why don't you sell it on eBay and make some money?" The closer the project came to its completion, the more I saw the value of the process as a means to share with others what God has done for me, my testimony, and introduce them to a Savior that promises them that He will lighten their burdens. Thinking about these interactions with my peers here caused me to inscribe John 3:16 on the interior of the removable panel because that is the ultimate quantifier of what took place when Christ was crucified. I can, but hope, someone will view my creation, seeing all that He suffered for us, sparking in them a desire to define in their own mind what these events mean to them.

It is with great wonder, excitement, and joy that I release this project into His hands for His purpose in helping others in need, whatever their need may be. It is an honor and a privilege to give back to the One who is my provision and protection on this ardent journey. I am only able to express my journey through artistic endeavors because of my sojourners, who enable me to purchase the many items used in my creations. I thank them for making it possible to express my journey and to share with others what God inspires me to make within my constraints. 

For His Glory, Bear Brubaker

Another Heartbreaking Parole Board Denial

Mr. Zellers in 2015, with some of his friends, when he was
in much better health.

Charles E. Zellers, Sr.
VADOC No. 1036758
Buckingham Correctional Center
Post Office Box 430
Dillwyn, Virginia 23936

Re: Recent Virginia Parole Board ("VPB") Decision

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Dear friends and family:

It truly breaks my heart to have to write you and give you the sad news that I've been denied a parole grant again. That was my eleventh not grant decision from the VPB and I've been eligible for release since July 30, 2005.

I was seen by the VPB Examiner on April 4, 2023 and my family and advocates met with VPB member Mrs. Michelle Dermyer on June 21, 2023.

The following not grant decision was handed down on September 29, 2023, and was certified on October 2, 2023.

I plan on filing an appeal since I do have a new medical issue which I didn't have prior to my advocates meeting with the VPB staff. My pulmonary doctor told me that he wants me to go back on supplemental oxygen. I will be transferred to Deerfield Correctional Center when this happens, probably sometime in January. I requested that I be permitted to stay here at Buckingham Correctional Center until I complete the Resilience Education Course I'm currently enrolled in through the University of Virginia's Darden Business School, one of top five in the country.

If you would like to contact any of the Board members, below are their email addresses*:

Patricia.west@vpb.virginia.gov (Chair)
Lloyd.banks@vpb.virginia.gov (Vice-chair)
Michelle.dermyer@vpb.virginia.gov
Samuel. boone@vpb.virginia.gov

Thanks to each of you for all you have done and hopefully will continue to do to help me obtain a parole grant. And pray for my aging mother, Judy Zellers. She is really taking my getting another turndown hard.

Respectfully submitted,

Charles

* Editorial note: There is still a parole board vacancy to be filled to bring the number of members to the required five. 
And here is the standard, computer-based response Mr. Zellers received:

Dear Charles Zellers:

The Virginia Parole Board recently reviewed your case for potential release on discretionary parole. As you know, the goal of the Parole Board is to release on parole those eligible offenders deemed suitable for release and whose release will be compatible with the welfare of society and the offender.

The Board, in determining whether you should be released on parole, considered a number of factors, including, but not limited to, whether your release would be compatible with public safety and the mutual interests of society and you; whether your character, conduct, vocational training and other developmental activities during incarceration reflect the probability that you will lead a law-abiding life in the community and live up to all conditions of parole, if released; sentencing information; facts and circumstances of the offense(s) including mitigating and aggravating factors; prior criminal history and information regarding adjustment to previous probation or parole, if any; personal history; institutional adjustment such as your response to available programs; changes in attitude toward self and others; release plans; evaluations; impressions gained when interviewed by the parole examiner; and any other information provided by your attorney, family, victims or other persons.

In accordance with Code Section 53.1-155 and in consideration of the factors listed above and the information available to us, the Virginia Parole Board's decision to "not grant" parole on September 29, 2023 is based primarily on the following reasons:

> Release at this time would diminish seriousness of crime
> The Board concludes that you should serve more of your sentence prior to release on parole.
> Serious nature and circumstances of your offense(s).
> History of violence.

While this may not be the answer you hoped for, please continue your hard work. The Parole Board made every effort to balance your rehabilitation needs with the public safety considerations on behalf of the citizens of Virginia.

If you believe that the Board made errors or that there is new or different information not available to the Board when the case was decided, you may request reconsideration of the decision. Requests for reconsideration must be received by the Board within sixty (60) days of the decision date on forms furnished by the Board to the institution; however, please be advised that the Board will reconsider cases only for specific errors or significant new or different information that was "unavailable" to the Board when the case was decided.

Sincerely,

By direction of the Virginia Parole Board:

Patricia West, chair

Here are some of blog posts which are about, or are written by, Mr. Zellers: 

https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2015/11/model-prisoner-47-denied-parole-seven.html
https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/search?q=charles+Zellers

The Feeding And Aiding Of The Four Billion

In Mark 8, when Jesus was moved to compassion
by a hungry crowd, he asked his followers one
simple question, "How many loaves do you have?"

Of the earth's 8.1 billion people, at least half are living in conditions most of us would consider intolerable. 

Examples:

• One in nine of our world neighbors face serious food shortages. By contrast, an estimated 40% of food in the U.S. goes to waste, and far more to waist.

• Over a billion people in the world live in urban slums without power, sewer systems or running water. Most of us over consume energy to the detriment of our environment.

• Well over a hundred million people are refugees due to war, drought, persecution and civil unrest, and many of these have been homeless for decades. Their number is growing.

• Fewer than 18% of the world's people will ever be able to afford a vehicle. We have more licensed vehicles in the US than licensed drivers.

• An estimated six out of ten children around the world are not learning basic reading and math skills. We are blessed with free public education.

• Countless numbers of people suffer from lack of basic dental and medical care. We take that for granted.

According to World Vision president Richard Stearns, author of the The Hole in our Gospel, those of us who earn $50,000 or more a year are among the wealthiest one percent of the world's population. This raises grave concerns about the future of a world with these kinds of disparities between haves and have nots.

A friend recently noted that we likely ignore such glaring disparities for fear that responding generously and justly would "hurt our pocketbooks."  But in light of St. Francis of Assisi's words, "Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that have received--only what you have given,"  this could actually be the best thing that could happen to our pocketbooks. Francis truly believed Jesus's teaching that giving to those in need was the soundest possible investment we could make in the most secure enterprise on earth, the worldwide and everlasting "Company of Heaven."

Here are some ways we can help create a more just, joyful and peaceful world:

• Urge our nation's lawmakers to set an example to other nations in drastically reducing what we spend on war-making and instead investing in a kind of Marshall Plan that would fund food and development projects all over the globe. According to the War Resister's League, a stack of $1,000 bills equal to what the US government currently spends each year on past and present wars would be over 115 miles high. Reinvesting such funds could literally eradicate starvation.

• Encourage people to divert their retirement savings from stock traded corporations to investments in Calvert and other funds that provide immediate help to the poor through loans for small businesses and which invest in such projects as alternative forms of energy, agricultural development and healthcare.

• Radically reduce the short sighted spending we do for our personal comfort and convenience and double up on investing in the long term wellbeing of our world neighbors. For example, we could all fast regularly and/or have a subsistence rice and bean diet meal once a day, then give extravagantly to organizations that benefit needy members of our worldwide human family.

We all have multiple opportunities to help save lives and to make life better for the hungry and homeless Jesus and the prophets cared for. For example, many in our community support the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale held at the Fairgrounds on the first Friday and Saturday of October, an effort that raises over $400,000 annually for Mennonite Central Committee's worldwide relief and development work. In the past number of years a significant percentage of that has come through direct cash, check and credit card donations at the Sale, and from contributions made on their website--in addition to income from food, craft and auction sales.

Even this commendable effort represents only a fraction of the kind of generosity today's urgent world needs call for. But to the hungry and homeless every little bit helps.

From the prophet Isaiah:  

Is not this the fast that I choose:
    to loose the bonds of injustice,
    to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
    and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
    and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them
    and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

 Isaiah 58:6-7 (NRSV) 

When we claim God as our Creator, every human on earth becomes our kin, and deserves a hand up.

An Alternative Creation Account (Satire Alert)

The Garden of Eden, as envisioned by Thomas Cole, 1928

And God said, "Let the earth be paved over with urban development, and include multiple convenience stores, McManna fast food outlets and supermarkets laden with all manner of processed food products according to their kind. And let there be large scale factory farms that produce, harvest and ship food from the far corners of the earth, such as beef fattened on massive feedlots, eggs mechanically gathered and packaged from caged laying hens, bacon and prime ribs from pigs confined to cramped individual stalls all their life, exotic fruit from as far away as China, and bananas and pineapples from corporation-owned plantations from all over the world.
And it was so.
Then God created suburbs with three car garages and with manicured, well fertilized and irrigated lawns, regularly sprayed to prevent native clovers and pollinator dandelions from adding any variant color or texture. These acres of unnatural turf created for Adam and Eve's enjoyment were interspersed with a variety of non-native trees, flowers and shrubs that were "pleasing to the eye" but usually not "good for food" for humans, bees, birds and other habitat.
And it was so.
The Lord also provided conveniences like riding mowers, leaf blowers and weed eaters to help keep all of the lawns neatly trimmed, and to separate the sterile paved areas from the sterile turf spaces. Gyms, fitness centers and pickle ball courts were provided for physical exercise so that well-to-do humans would not have to work the ground to produce vegetables, fruits, nuts or berries of any kind for their food. The Lord also offered employment at local McManna and supermarket outlets for their sons Cain and Abel to earn spending money and to keep them occupied in their spare time.
And it was so.
And God saw all that was made, and mused, "What ever made us think this was 'very good'?"

- selections of Genesis 1 and 2 from the "Reversed Standard Version" 

Satire aside, there are these more hopeful visions:

"Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion;
God will restore all her waste places.
And her wilderness God will make like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the Lord;
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
Thanksgiving and sound of a melody."  Isaiah 51:3

"They will say, ‘This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste, desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.’"   Ezekiel 36:35

"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."  Revelation 22:1-2